The One Book the Reading Group Dare not Open
EACH MONTH the Reading Group considers a book which may delight, annoy, enrich,
disappoint, etc, etc. What the Group does not want to do is to read a book
which causes total depression and despair.
I'm talking about David Craig's Plundering the Public Sector (Constable paperback at £9.99) which has the highly contentious subtitle "How New Labour are letting consultants run off with £70 billion of our money". Published in February this year, it provides the reason why so many government initiatives have run into trouble, why PFIs can be a rip-off, why there will be an increasing number of articles and tv programmes exploring the failures which will gradually reveal the full horror of Labour giving a free hand to the "professionals".
Whether it's Defra, the Child Support Agency, Tax Credits, and now the very topical Labour flagship 'Connecting for Health', David Craig illustrates the power and influence of the management consultants, and why there have been so many blunders. Even more depressing is that one must wonder who is making the decisions, who sets new initiatives, who sets targets, who provides the always alluring cost savings over ten years. Even if you read and become dismayed, at least you will better understand why the government has constantly to make reassessments and changes in the health service, and why so many failures were inevitable.